How to write poetry
Don’t tell me to have some shame
Don’t tell me to rein my tongue
I am stripping off all your poetic conventions
One by one.. lines, hemistich, caesura, stanza, rhythm, meter, rhyme,
alliteration, enjambment…
I am tearing off your bloody Alphabet
from my chest
I am pulling away the cursed metaphors
covering the wounds between my thighs
Yes, i am roaming your civilized streets
shameless and naked, bleeding….
Oh, shut up!
Don’t tell me to keep my voice down.
Hear me…
Hear me scream, howl, roar, explode,
ululate in high pitched trills
Watch me
make these raw, wounded,
mangled words lie stretched out
on this pristine ground
like naked bodies of raped women — kuki-zomi, meitei,
dalit, christian, adivasi, hindu, muslim..
all next to each other.
Don’t teach me
how to write poetry today.
